Firefighter Say Incendiary Device, Adolescence Link Common

Colorado Springs firefighters believe there is a link between incendiary devices and adolescent fire-starters.

The discovery of a incendiary device on the Classical Academy campus Thursday brought the Colorado Springs Police Department bomb squad and the Colorado Springs Fire Department to campus for several hours.

They rendered the device safe and stressed that it was not explosive in nature but incendiary, meaning it was a fire starter and accelerant.

A spokeswoman for the fire department said 200 adolescents each year are required to go through their fire-starter prevention classes. In many of the incendiary device cases, someone underage is involved.

“It’s a great program,” said Captain Gary Reading of CSFD. “It’s a diversion program for the kids to educate them on the things that could happen (if a fire gets out of control.)”

Reading heads up the Hazardous Materials unit for CSFD. He said hazmat crews show up on a lot of those incendiary device calls to help the bomb squad determine what chemicals are being used and the best way to put out a fire if one does spark.

“We obviously discourage any type of use of these devices by adolescents,” said Reading.

Firefighters did not want to share details of what was found on the school campus because the police department’s investigation is still open. One person was arrested but that person has not been identified.